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Energy efficiency and renewables offering more solutions to businesses and households

Solarexpo-The Innovation Cloud aims to create a common ground between renewable energies and energy efficiency in order to offer a wider range of technological solutions to cut the energy bill of SMEs and families.See you in Milan from 8 to 10 April 2015

Italian SMEs are among the most disadvantaged compared to competitors in the rest of Europe due the cost of energy, which can amount to as much as 15% of turnover for some industries. Therefore, reducing consumption is essential: a need that is also increasingly felt by homeowners. The technology exists but requires new tools and skills, especially to make the most of solar power, renewable sources and energy efficiency.

These topics will be deeply discussed from 8 to 10 April during the 2015 edition of Solarexpo-The Innovation Cloud, which will be held in the new location of MiCo-Milan Exhibition and Conference Centre. A B2B matchmaking platform which combines specilized professionals of both renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors, and that this year will also be an oppurtunity for SMEs and families to learn how to reduce their energy bill through a wide range of sustainable technologies.

Now more than ever, in the current energy market, it is important to create common ground between the two worlds of energy that, until recently, watched each other from afar and acted independently. Now we need a comprehensive vision to focus on the goal of energy independence or, in any case, of reducing the energy bill.

For EPCs and System Integrators, and especially for ESCos (Energy Service Companies), it is necessary to offer more solutions to the demands of end-customers, being able to manage a true "basket" of technologies, and having the necessary knowledge across the board.

The union of renewable sources and efficiency has, in itself, great potential for creating a sort of osmosis between various customer portfolios and allows integration of different types of expertise within the same company. Just think, for example, of the thousands of companies that, thanks to the Conto Energia incentives, have installed photovoltaic systems on their roofs and to which you can now return to offer interventions such as revamping or installation of high-efficiency motors and inverters. Or of those companies that have applied efficiency measures to their industrial processes and to which you can now propose photovoltaic system for self-consumption through Efficient Systems for Users (SEU), and so on.

The creation of a benchmark to fully express the potential of these two worlds' cohesion is one of main purposes of Solarexpo-The Innovation Cloud. In the exhibition hall, to vouch for this italian know-how, will expose some ESCos like Alens, Cloros, ESA Holding, Kairos Ingegneria, L'Energie.

One essential pre-condition for implementing shrewd efficiency measures is the energy audit, which, starting this year, is mandatory for large businesses and those with high energy consumption. To this end, a total of 105 million euros has been allocated for the benefit of SMEs. To stimulate the implementation of energy efficiency projects after the audit, the legislation provides for strengthening the energy-saving or "white certificate" mechanism. The audit must be performed by an ESCo or an energy-management expert.

These topics will be discussed in Milan also thanks to the participation of some associations like FIRE (Italian Association for rational use of energy), AssoEGE (Association of experts in energy management) and ASSOESCo (Association of Energy Service Company).

The organisers: due to a continued regulatory instability the Italian solar market is still going through a difficult phase of consolidation and stagnation. Confident that the energy revolution triggered by the boom of PV cannot be reversed, a call is launched to the Italian business community of the new energy technologies for joining forces. To seek a stronger political consensus and recreate the necessary critical mass vis-à-vis the vested interests lobby.

Market statistics fornew PV installationsinItalyin 2015 - which will most probably not go beyond a mere 300 MW - report a further 30% decrease compared to the 2014 level. This was actually a totallyunexpected figure, for everyone thought that 2015 would have been archived as the bottom-level year of the post-incentive phase.

The background is a continued instability generated in the national legislative and regulatory framework. The grid parity-based model of production of renewable energy for self-consumption and liberalised sale in the domestic, commercial and industry sectors is againunder attackin Italy.

It was little surprise, therefore, that from the continuousexchange processestablished by the organizers with the nationalPV industryand those international brands still active on the Italian market, it has turned out that under the current market conditions it is not possible to achieve the critical mass needed to have in 2016 aSolarexpoexhibition in line with its 17-year reputation and role as inspiring event in Italy for all new energy technologies.

Howeverthe organisers launch a call to the Italian business communityof PV and to all "sister and allied" technologies (from storage to smart grids, from intelligent buildings to e-mobility and energy efficiency) forjoining forcesto seek a stronger social and political consensus and recreate the necessary critical mass vis-à-vis the lobby of conventional energy generation and distribution.

“Despite this difficult transition phase, no one lacks confidence that history has definitely turned – declaresLuca Zingale, founder and scientific director ofSolarexpo | The Innovation Cloud. We are all witnesses, and front players indeed, of a real energy revolution. A paradigm shift which was triggered by the great leap of PV and is marked by increasing achievements in the four directions of distributed generation, decarbonisation, increasing electrification, digitalization of energy. A revolution of such a historical extent cannot be reversed, or even just stopped. Because it is simply the future for the entire planet, and the only viable industry policy option for an advanced economy like Italy".

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